Sarafian praises Erdoğan as ‘a man of peace’
16.03.2007
Today's Zaman İstanbul
British-Armenian historian Ara Sarafian acknowledged that there have been positive developments in Turkish-Armenian relations in past years and praised Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for "opening the door for a solution to the problem."
Turkey and Armenia have no formal ties and the border gate between the two countries has been closed for more than a decade. Ankara says relations will not be normalized unless Armenia stops supporting diaspora efforts to win international recognition for the alleged genocide and withdraws its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan that has been under Armenian occupation since the last decade.
Erdoğan proposed last year establishment of a joint committee of academics to study events of the World War I years, but Armenia declined the offer.
According to Sarafian, "some powers in Turkey" prevent Erdoğan from doing more. "He is a man of peace, but he is restricted in changes he can initiate," he said in an interview with private Cihan News Agency in London, complaining that there are ultranationalist circles in Turkey, while Erdoğan is a liberal man respecting common sense.
"Erdoğan is leading efforts to renovate a Christian church, although he has an Islamic past. This is very interesting and pleasing," he said, referring to the government's plans to reopen the Akhtamar Church in eastern Anatolia later this month following an extensive renovation. Several members of the Armenian diaspora have been invited to attend the opening.
"I believe Erdoğan is part of the solution. Frankly, I think Erdoğan has done everything that the Armenian diaspora could have expected of him. The diaspora should now take more positive steps," he said.
Sarafian also said 90 percent of Armenian artifacts were destroyed and called for government work to restore and protect the remaining 10 percent.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Today's Zaman İstanbul
British-Armenian historian Ara Sarafian acknowledged that there have been positive developments in Turkish-Armenian relations in past years and praised Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for "opening the door for a solution to the problem."
Turkey and Armenia have no formal ties and the border gate between the two countries has been closed for more than a decade. Ankara says relations will not be normalized unless Armenia stops supporting diaspora efforts to win international recognition for the alleged genocide and withdraws its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan that has been under Armenian occupation since the last decade.
Erdoğan proposed last year establishment of a joint committee of academics to study events of the World War I years, but Armenia declined the offer.
According to Sarafian, "some powers in Turkey" prevent Erdoğan from doing more. "He is a man of peace, but he is restricted in changes he can initiate," he said in an interview with private Cihan News Agency in London, complaining that there are ultranationalist circles in Turkey, while Erdoğan is a liberal man respecting common sense.
"Erdoğan is leading efforts to renovate a Christian church, although he has an Islamic past. This is very interesting and pleasing," he said, referring to the government's plans to reopen the Akhtamar Church in eastern Anatolia later this month following an extensive renovation. Several members of the Armenian diaspora have been invited to attend the opening.
"I believe Erdoğan is part of the solution. Frankly, I think Erdoğan has done everything that the Armenian diaspora could have expected of him. The diaspora should now take more positive steps," he said.
Sarafian also said 90 percent of Armenian artifacts were destroyed and called for government work to restore and protect the remaining 10 percent.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 8:33 AM
1 Comments:
Has anyone out there asked Sarafian directly if he made such a positive comment about Erdogan???
Is the Turkish Press to be believed?
Exactly where and when did Sarafian say such a thing?
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